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Category: Opinion

Spycops! Is There Such a Thing as Ethical Undercover Policing?

My inaugural HuffPost UK blog post – it first appeared on Huffington Post UK on November 15, 2016. Twitter is awash with the #spycops hashtag. It is an omen of things to come relating to the Undercover Policing Inquiry.   I hope that the Pitchford Inquiry asks, “Is there such a thing as ‘ethical undercover policing’?” To some that appears to be an oxymoron. Perhaps it comes as no surprise when learning about some of the antics of former Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) undercover officers in particular. First allow me to make full disclosure – I am a former undercover police officer and was deep undercover on one of the UKs largest drug busts back in the 1970s. I now write, after careers as a…

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Jingoism By Jingo!

Hard times, tough times do foster a wonderful feeling of resilience in people.  War time is possibly a good example of that. I mean war as in WW2,  not the futile war fought in the Falklands at the whim of a whiskey-dependent mad woman in charge of the UK at the time. That was jingoism at its worst. Jingoism in its  modern-day form (aka racism) was also seen in the UK before and since Brexit. The sense of resilient feel-good -pull-together-because-we -are -all- in -the- shit feeling was possibly last experienced en-masse during the heavy bombing of the UKs major cities and dockyards during WW2. I guess it was also felt to a degree in the aftermath of some terrorist attacks in London. I lived…

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9 Eye-Opening Facts About Getting Older For Young People

Many blog posts are prompted by the writer’s own experiences. I’m no different and there is a reason why I chose to write about the ‘9 Eye-Opening Facts About Getting Older …’ aimed at young people. There is a part of my most recent book in which I describe bumping into a man I hadn’t seen for many years. It happened in London in about 2010; we both knew each other well from forty plus years previously from my Liverpool days. I walked by and thought ‘That looks like Kevin Dooley. Nah! it can’t be. He looks old.’ Stopping in my tracks, I turned and yelled “Kevin!” He turned around, for it was indeed Kevin. Fact #1 Inside your head you remain the same person…

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War on Drugs – Beware 1) Misinformation 2) Vested Interests

Disclosure: I have a book to sell and promote ‘Undercover: Operation Julie – The Inside Story.’ It is a true story of my undercover cop days infiltrating one of the world’s largest drug gangs. I make the disclosure in light of the words “vested interests” in the title of this piece. I, unlike some others, have no vested interests in the debate on drugs. As I wrote in my book, “I am   neither pro or anti-drugs.” I am all in favor of an intelligent, fact-based debate. But other than that, I have no vested interest in advocating a view about the so-called ‘War on Drugs.’ It was the BBC who said that Operation Julie was the start of the ‘War on Drugs.’ As I…

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Prophecy: GB is now RB

Prophecy is a prompt from the people at the Daily Post at WordPress. com. I don’t usually need a prompt of any kind to write a blog post. Today is different. I feel like making a prophecy of doom and gloom. Why? I am deeply concerned about the result of the Brexit vote. Prophecy # 1 I prophecy that no good will come out of it and all will end in tears. I fear for the United Kingdom and its future. I really do. My first reaction to the vote to leave the EU was one of “Oh! No,” That was a tad selfish I admit. The good old British Pound had tumbled in value. End result – I have less pesos, and any other currency…

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Message to Mouth – Engage Brain First

It’s an old saying – “message to mouth, engage brain first.” It is a maxim that most politicians are adept at practicing. Occasionally, even the most adept come a cropper. Does it matter? I think it does. Not because it displays a lack of political nous but because I believe it gives us an insight into the ‘real’ person who commits the faux pas, or utters les mots mal. There are Presidential elections going on in the Philippines right now. As a foreigner living here, I have tried so hard to keep my counsel for two reasons. One, I know nothing of the politics here and two, it’s nothing to do with me. It’s nothing to do with me but I sincerely hope this wonderful…

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Start Social Media Manners NOW!

I know I’m older today than I was yesterday so I guess I should be a little wiser than I was yesterday. The world is so different than 40-50 years ago. In turn, the youth of that generation were not understood by the generation before them. It is a constant cycle. I feel it is incumbent upon me to pass some comments on social media manners. Yet, I think that good manners is a mark of a civilized people even in this era. Unfortunately, bad manners abound everywhere. The manifestation of bad manners is to be seen and read in many places on the internet. That is particularly the case in the comments sections of many posts and articles on the web. They abound with…

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Web Hosting That Sucks!

I pull no punches in writing about a web hosting service that sucks! And, I mean truly sucks! That service (oxymoron) sounds like it is the opposite of ‘Come Mummy’ 🙂 I now have two active websites. This blog and my Stephen Bentley – Author site. A change of web hosting service was forced upon me recently. It was a case of friendship and business not mixing. I’m sure you have been there too!  A former ‘friend’ is a re-seller of hosting. I was with his service for some 8 months before he gave me an ultimatum to find another hosting package. As he only gave me a week before he pulled the plug, I went to ‘Come Mummy.’ What a nightmare! 404 messages constantly – a…

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Rivalry Turned Into Hatred – Scousers and Mancs

Rivalry? Hatred? – Liverpool FC and Manchester United Just when was it that rivalry turned into hatred between the two most successful football teams in England? The gulf between the two clubs is much wider and longer than 30 or so miles of the East Lancs Road that physically separates Anfield and Old Trafford. To be precise,  that gulf exists between the fans and not so much the owners, directors and players of both clubs. I am not sure I could have written that last sentence when SAF was still manager of ManU. He stoked the passion of the fans on both sides with his now infamous statement that he intended to “knock Liverpool off their f***ing perch”! I became prompted to write this post in…

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BeinSports SkyCable Thank You Very Much

Wow! BeinSports and Sky Cable I thank you so very much! BeinSports is NOW available in Bacolod! Yay! 🙂 🙂 I must also thank Miguel of the Hat Trick Sports Grill bar for starting up the campaign on Facebook to  bring BeinSports  to Bacolod and Talisay. I don’t know what did the (hat) trick but whatever it was I am truly grateful. At times it seemed like I was the lone voice in the wilderness as I was missing my fix of English football in the Philippines. I had written about English football in the Philippines (or lack of) and was beginning to despair of ever watching Liverpool FC on TV ever again! They are not the only club I watch. There will be plenty of chances to watch…

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